

■W^l 




The Last Year of the War in North Carolina, including 
Plymouth, Fort Fisher and Bentonsville. 



AN ADDRESS 



BEFORK THE 



issoGiation irmi] of lorthGrn iirginia, 



DELIVERED IN THE 



HALL OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES 



Richmond, Va., October 28, 1887, 



HON. A. M. WADDELL, 

0/ Wilmington, N. C, formerly Lieutenant- Colonel, <Sfc., C. S. A. 



Printed by Order of the Association. 



RICHMOND: 

WM. ELLIS JONES, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER. 
1888. 



A/ <^ 
2- 0/ 



The Last Year of the War in North Carolina, including 
Plymouth, Fort Fisher and Bentonsville. 



AN ADDRESS 



BEFORE THE 



issociation irmi] of lorthGrn iirginia, 



DELIVERED IN THE 



HALL OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES 

Richmond, Va., October 28, 1887, 

BY 

HON. A. M. WADDELL, 

0/ Wilmington, N. C, formerly Lietetenanl- Colonel, &c., C. S. A. 



Printed bv Order of the Association. 



RICHMOND: 

WM. ELLIS JONES, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER. 
1888. 



L 5^ir 






OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION. 



President: 
Major-General \VM. B. TALIAFERRO. 



Vice-Presidents : 

Col. CHARLES MARSHALL, Capt. P. W. McKINNEY, 

Col. JAMES H. SKINNER, Brig.-Gen. T. T. MUNFORD, 

Brig.-Gen. JNO. R. COOKE. 



Executive Cotnmittee : 
Col. archer ANDERSON, Major THOS. A. BRANDER, 

Judge GEO. L. CHRISTIAN, Col. WM. H. PALMER, 

JNO. S. ELLETT, Esq. 



Treasurer : 
ROBERT S. BOSHER, Esq. 



Secretary: 
CARLTON MCCARTHY. 



The Last Year of the War in North Carolina, including 
Plymouth, Fort Fisher and Bentonsville. 



AN ADDRESS 



BEFORE THE 



Association Army of Northern Virginia, 

BY 

HON. A. M. WADDELL. 



Mr. President and Comrades : 

At any time, but more especially so soon after the memor- 
able exercises and the soul-stirring oration of yesterday, it would be 
impossible for any true soldier of the Confederacy to perform the 
duty with which you have so highly honored me this evening, with- 
out experiencing emotions to which it would be happier for him if he 
were insensible. The flood of memories which it turns loose, let him 
philosophize as he may, will overwhelm him, and the consciousness 
that the ranks of his living comrades are daily dwindling does not 
tend to diminish the power of these emotions. 

If he could divest himself of them entirely, and look at that past 
as he would at any other period of human history — without personal 
interest and with the calm gaze of a student — -this duty would re- 
solve itself into a mere literary exercise ; but, thank God, who has 
given to each of us a spark of the divine attribute of love, such a 
passionless regard of that past is impossible, for the pictures it has 
painted on our memories it has also engraved upon our hearts. 

In the years that have passed since the close of our bloody drama, 
how often in the silent watches of the night, and even in the pursuit 
of our ordinary avocations, has each of us found himself contempla- 
ting those pictures with all the varying emotions which they awaken ! 
Their lines have grown softer beneath the mellowing touch of Time, 



6 The Last Tear of the War in North Carolina, 

whose healing hand has also closed the wounds that once seemed 
mortal, but until the last Confederate soldier is mustered out of life 
they cannot wholly disappear. 

Is this sentimentalism ? Where, then, shall we look for the sources 
of real human passions ? If the emotions aroused by the tragedies 
of a long and bloody war, in which all that is dearest on earth to man 
was believed to be at stake, are sentimentalism, where can we hope to 
find an adequate source for the noblest passions of the human heart ? 
We believe that in the very nature of things there could have been 
no such profound and sincere convictions stirring the hearts of our 
former enemies as those which animated us. The best and truest of 
them were influenced in their moments of highest inspiration only by 
that sort of patriotism which takes up arms against the loss of 
national prestige or territory — ^and here the territory was a land that 
most of them had never seen, and one whose civilization they affected 
to despise — while the less sincere and honorable among them were 
influenced by mercenary motives or a spirit of revenge. 

How different was it with us ! No man volunteered to fight for 
the Confederacy who was not prompted to do so by the most natural 
and the most powerful incentives that can influence human conduct. 
Each and every one of them felt that, whether personally respon- 
sible for bringing on the dreadful issue or not, in shouldering his gun 
to meet it, he was defending not only his heritage of liberty, but his 
home and his property from the lawless hand of an invader, who 
sought to subjugate them to his will — that he was obeying the first 
law of nature, and was therefore justified in the sight of God and 
man. 

Whether or not the result justified these apprehensions for many 
years after the war, and whether the change of policy was finally 
effected more by self-interest than from higher motives, it would be 
unprofitable to discuss. We are now a great, consolidated nation of 
more or less loving brethren, moving on one path to a common 
destiny, and the statesmanship of the present day is teaching us new 
lessons in the science of government. Only last month we learned 
from a great Senator, who came out of the breezy West, that Thomas 
Jefferson " borrowed his ideas of the social contract from Rousseau 
and the French philosophers," that "his dreamy imagination was 
captivated by their vague phrases and imperfect generalizations," 
that " he had no conception of the moral forces which give a nation 
strength, duration and grandeur," and that " he failed to comprehend 



Including Plymouth, Fort Fisher and Bentonsville. 7 

the supreme obligation of law as the bond which unites society." 
The same great Senator, to be sure, had already apotheosized John 
Brown, whose soul, they say, is marching somewhere, but any em- 
barrassment which that fact might suggest to his present argument 
could only arise in a disloyal mind, and is, therefore, unworthy of 
consideration. The JefTersonian maxim that just governments derive 
their powers from the consent of the governed is, in the eyes of this 
great Senator from the West, one of those vague phrases and imper- 
fect generalizations by which the " dreamy imagination " of the father 
of modern Democracy was captivated ; whereas the truth, according 
to the same authority, is that all governments rest " not upon con- 
sent, but upon force." 

The South, he says, tried the theory that governments rest on 
consent and was logical in doing so, but Grant's guns " refuted their 
fatal syllogism." 

"The rule of the majority is still the rule of the strongest," exult- 
ingly exclaims this great man. 

Alas ! what answer can be made to this argument of numbers, this 
simplification of the science of government into 

"The good old rule, the simple plan 
That he may take who hath the power, 
And he may keep who can ? " 

Should any one be so silly as to suggest any such " vague phrase" 
or " imperfect generalization " as those contained in the Constitution 
of the United States, or the Bill of Rights, or to intimate that States, 
or minorities of the people have any rights which the majority are 
bound to respect ; or that there is any limitation upon their power — 
if he suggested this it would only be evidence that, like Jefferson, " he 
had no conception of the 7>ioraI forces which give a nation strength, 
duration and grandeur " — that " he failed to comprehend the supreme 
obligation of law as the bond which unites society ; " and, finally, if 
he could not see the imbecility of such suggestions, his opponent 
could bring the artillery to bear on the argument, as Grant did. 

Verily, we should rejoice that we have lived to see the true char- 
acter of our government thus explained and accepted, and the whole 
duty of citizenship, as well as the aim of successful statesmanship, 
resolved into the simple process of "going with the crowd." May 
the crowd go right, henceforth, is at once the prayer and the only 
hope of the patriot. 



The Last Tear of the War in North Carolina, 



THE TASK DIFFICULT. 

I could not, perhaps, more forcibly convey to you my sense of the 
honor conferred by your invitation to perform this duty than by say- 
ing, as I do frankly, that if the difficulty of performing it satisfac- 
torily had been as well understood before as after accepting it, the 
task would have been politely declined. But I realized too late that 
even our best impulses cannot always be safely followed. Inspired 
solely by a sentiment of loyalty to my living comrades, and to the 
memory of those who have "gone before," and without stopping to 
count the cost, the promise was made. If the performance shall fall, 
short, there is only left to me the consolation of a good motive and 
the reflection that soldiers will never impute rashness to a comrade 
for a crime. 

The purpose of the "Association of the Army of Northern Vir- 
ginia," as declared at the time of its organization, was to gather ma- 
terial for a correct history of that Army. The addresses heretofore 
annually delivered before the Association bv distinguished officers 
and soldiers have so completely supplemented the published record, 
that one might well despair of adding anything new or valuable to 
the material now accumulated, unless he had enjoyed especial oppor- 
tunities of acquiring particular information not generally possessed. 
It not having been my fortune to be thus situated, prudence would 
have suggested an escape from the honor tendered to me ; but the 
refusal of any duty connected with the commemoration of Confed- 
erate valor is well-nigh impossible with one who wore a gray uni- 
form — unless, mayhap, the continual savor of the flesh-pots has 
destroyed his appetite for that sort of service — and, therefore only, I 
am here. 

INACCURACIES OF HISTORY. 

We are told of one who abandoned a history which he was writing, 
because, looking out of his window and witnessing an exciting trans- 
action, he immediately afterwards recounted it to a friend who came 
in, and was astounded at being told by his friend that he was entirely 
mistaken as to the facts ; that he, himself, was a party to the affair, 
and that it occurred in a different way altogether. The writer there- 
upon resolved to destroy his MSS. , because, he said, if he could not 
accurately describe facts which he himself had witnessed, he certainly 



Including Plymouth, Fort Fisher and Bentonsville. 9 

could not expect to write a correct account ol events which occurred 
long before he was born. 

One ol the most distinguished ol" those who have preceded me in 
this duty (Colonel Marshall, in 1874), alluding to tiie dano;er of 
undertaking to fight any of the battles of the war " o'er again," said 
that although, at the time he spoke, sixty years had elapsed since 
Waterloo, writers were still not agreed as to the facts of that famous 
battle, and added : 

" It is not fourteen years since our war began, and yet who, on 
either side, of those who took part in it, is bold enough to say that he 
knows the exact truth, and the whole truth, with reference to any of 
the great battles in which the armies of the North and South met 
each other." 

He then proceeded to illustrate by |)ointing out alleged errors in a 
recently published book by one of the highest military authorities of 
the Confederacy. In further illustration of his remark, it so hap- 
pened that the very next annual oration before this Association, 
delivered by another distinguished gentleman (Major John W. 
Daniel, in 1875), and evidently prepared with the utmost care from 
official reports, and with every desire to be accurate, contained state- 
ments in regard to Pettig;ew's division in the splendid charge at 
Gettysburg, which, long before the delivery of the address (and, in- 
deed, as early as July .^oth, 1863), had been vigorously denied, which 
have since been thoroughly disproved by an overwhelming array of 
testimony, and which must now be regarded as erroneous by any 
candid incjuirer after the truth who shall read the evidence. If any 
fact is proven to be true, it is that the North Carolina brigade and 
Archer's brigade of that division went as far and staid as long as 
any other soldiers in the charge. If the testimony of the living was 
insufficient, the dead bodies of their comrades who fell inside the 
enemy's lines spake through the poor dumb lips of a hundred 
gaping wounds the inexorable truth. I do not intend to discuss 
that matter, although of all times and places this would be perhaps 
the most appropriate for it. Such a discussion could not by any 
possibility affect the merited fame of Pickett's men, while it would do 
justice to those whose reputation ought to be as dear to this Asso- 
ciation as that of any whose fame it has in its keeping. The gallant 
soldier and gifted orator to whom I refer, corrected his statement as 
to Trimble's division, and doubtless if he had known the facts would 
have done so cheerfully, as to Pettigrew's also. 



10 The Last Year of the War in North Carolina, 

These facts were vouched for by commanding officers of the bri- 
gades of that division, and by scores of staff, regimental and company 
officers of as high character and approved courage as any in the 
army.* 

There was no room for them to be mistaken as to the facts, as 
there was for those looking on at a distance, and, therefore, unless 
they wilfully misrepresent, they and their men have long been the 
victims of injustice. 

The limits of this address, which is upon another theme, will pre- 
clude any further discussion of this interesting and important sub- 
ject, which only serves to illustrate how the man looking through 
the window at a transaction, and honestly attempting to give a true 
account of it, can be flatly contradicted by the testimony of those 
immediately concerned in it. 

A great English authority, Mr. Froude, has said : 

" It often seems to me as if history was like a child's box of letters 
with which we can spell any word we please. We have only to 
select such letters as we want, arrange them as we like, and say noth- 
ing about those which do not suit our purpose." 

That, of course, would be dishonest history, but even where, as in 
the matter to which I have alluded, there is a sincere desire to state 
the facts truly and just as they occurred, the narrative is very liable 
to contain grave errors. 

LAST YEAR OF THE WAR IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

Supposing that the service of any part of the Army of Northern 
Virginia anywhere would be an appropriate subject, and being un- 
willing to attempt to go over any part of the ground heretofore so 
elaborately discussed before you (viz : the campaigns and battles 
north of and within the territory of Virginia), it is my purpose to 
give a general and, of course, a condensed account of the military 
operations during the last year of the war — from April, 1864 to April, 
1865 — in North Carolina, in all of which operations detachments of 
the Army of Northern Virginia participated, and some of which 
were closely connected with its fate. 

In 1862, after the fall of Roanoke Island, which was probably an 
untenable position from the first, and the loss of Newbern, which was 
tenable and ought never to have been left with such utterly inadequate 



See Moore's History of North Carolina, pages 200-235, Volume II. 



Including Plymouth, Fort Fisher and Bentonsville. 11 

defence, the whole North Carolina coast, with the sounds and rivers, 
from below Beaufort to the Virginia line, was in possession of the 
enemy, and the back door to Norfolk harbor, through which all the 
immense supplies of one of the richest regions of the Confederacy 
could be poured, was open to them and so remained during the war. 
Raids and skirmishes in that region frequently occurred, but no foot- 
hold was ever st-cured by tiie Confederates in any part of it until the 
spring of 1864, when Hoke captured Plymouih. Just previous to 
this, in the latter part of January, General Pickett with five brigades 
had been sent from Virginia by General Lee to assault and cap- 
ture Newbern, where there was a garrison of about two thousand 
men under General Peck, but, for some reason as yet unknown to 
me, the troops, after getting in sight of the town, were withdrawn 
and the enterprise was abandoned. 

THE CAPTURE OF PLYMOUTH. 

In April, 1864, General Lee, recognizing the importance of recov- 
ering possession of the Roanoke region of North Carolina as a 
source of supplies, sent three brigades — Hoke's, commanded by 
Colonel Mercer, Kemper's, commanded by General Terry, and Ran- 
som's — with some cavalry and artillery, commanded by General 
Dearing, in all about forty-eight hundred troops, under command 
of Hoke as senior brigadier, to attack the town of Plymouth, on the 
southern bank of Roanoke river, and about eight miles from its mouth. 
This place, which had been in possession of the enemy for about two 
years, was very strongly fortified by a series of forts on three sides, 
connected by a heavy line of entrenchments, with the river on the 
fourth side, where were stationed four gunboats carrying heavy guns. 
Accompanying this force down the river, which, fortunately at that 
time, was swollen by an unprecedented and long wished-for freshet, 
was the Confederate iron-clad Albemarle, which was built under the 
direction of and was commanded by Captain James W. Cook, of 
North Carolina, a gallant officer of the navy. This vessel stands 
alone in the history of naval architecture. She was the only vessel 
of war — and a very formidable one, too — ever seen in the world 
whose keel was laid in a corn row on a river bank, and which started, 
without an experimental trip, to attack a superior naval force and a 
fortified town, and had hove in sight of the enemy before she was 
completed and while the workmen were hammering on her unfinished 



12 The Last Year of the War in North Carolina, 

armor. It is also a fact that Captain Cook had a crew who were 
almost wholly inexperienced, and that his time while descending the 
river was taken up in the double duty, simultaneously performed, of 
superintending the workmen who were employed in armoring the 
ship and in drilling his " green " crew at the guns. In the same breath, 
almost, he would address the one gang with an order to drive a bolt 
and the other with a command to "sponge" or "fire," and in this 
way he was employed up to the last moment before engaging the 
enemy. Alluding to the Albemarle, General Wessells, the command- 
ing officer at Plymouth, in his official report of the fight, says : 

"It was the design of Captain Flusser to fight this formidable an- 
tagonist in the river with his own boat, lashed to the Southfield, run- 
ning into close quarters, whilst the Whitehead was to use every 
effort to disable her propeller, and great confidence was felt as to the 
result of this plan." 

The latter part of the plan failed, as will be seen, while the first 
part ended in disaster. 

Hoke arrived before Plymouth on the 17th of April and began to 
make his dispositions for the attack during the afternoon, having 
skirmished with and driven in the outposts. The garrison of Ply- 
mouth, thus fortified, was, as compared with the attacking force, a 
strong one. It consisted of the Sixteenth Connecticut, Eighty-fifth 
New York, One-Hundred and-First Pennsylvania, One-Hundred- 
and-Third Pennsylvania, and two companies of infantry, two compa- 
nies of cavalry and two companies of heavy artillery, making about 
thirty-five hundred troops in all. Brigadier-General H. W. Wes- 
sells was in command, and the garrison was very confident of its 
ability to defend the place successfully. 

On the afternoon of the i8th, after some severe artillery firing 
and some heavy skirmishing. Colonel Mercer, commanding Hoke's 
brigade, assaulted and carried a work called " Eighty-fifth Redoubt,' ' 
but was killed in the assault. " A demand was then made for the 
surrender of the town, which was declined," says General Wes- 
sells. The next morning, before daylight, the Albemarle passed the 
forts above the town unharmed by the 200-pound gun in Battery 
Worth ; and as she approached the town. Captain Cook, seeing the 
Miami and Southfield, lashed together and covered with heavy 
chains, approaching with the evident design of running down his 
ship, put on every pound of steam she would carry, and rushing 
with the current, bow on, to the Southfield, sunk her almost imme- 



Including Plymouth, Fort Fisher and Bentonsville. 13 

diately, and then turning on the Miami engaged her and drove her 
off, after her gallant commander, Flusser, had been killed by the 
rebounding fragment of a shell which he himself had fired, and while 
he still held the lanyard in his hand. 

Having now got below the town. Captain Cook began to co- 
operate with the field batteries of Hoke in shelling the forts and 
intrenchments, to the very great demoralization of the garrison, 
although no serious damage was done. 

Skirmishing was kept up all day along the entire west and south 
front of the town by Mercer's and Terry's brigades, and about dark 
one of Ransom's men (named Conover) having volunteered to swim 
across Coneby creek below the town to capture a boat by which small 
detachments could be sent across to drive away the outpost there, and 
this having succeeded, Ransom laid down a pontoon and crossed his 
troops over the creek, thus securing a position on the enemy's left. 
His command was composed of the Twenty-fourth, Twenty-fifth, 
Thirty-fifth and Fifty-sixth regiments of his own brigade, with the 
Eighth regiment of Clingman's brigade, and Pegram's, Blount's, 
and the Montgomery Blues' batteries, under the immediate command 
of Major J. R. Branch. There he formed line of battle, and re- 
mained until day dawn of the next day ( 20th), when — the enemy 
having in the meantime prepared to receive him — he made the assault 
on the line of works. The part of the line attacked by Ransom was 
where the enemy least expected an assault, as Hoke kept making 
feints until he had got Ransom in position, but they discovered the 
threatened danger in time to meet it. The ground was an open 
plain, more than a quarter of a- mile wide, and Ransom, mounted, 
led his men over it at a double-quick, and under a very severe fire, 
up to and beyond the lines, driving the enemy before him. General 
Ransom received many encomiums upon his gallant conduct in lead- 
ing the charge. It was done in splendid style, and with a dash 
unsurpassed during the war. But it was a costly enterprise in the 
loss of life. The official figures, if ever made, have not been acces- 
sible to me ; but the loss here, and in the continued charge against a 
line that had been formed inside and in rear of the breastworks, has 
never been estimated at less than four hundred, and is put down by 
General Wessells, upon information furnished by medical officers left 
in Plymouth, at not less than eight hundred and fifty. 

General Hoke now demanded a surrender, as the enemy had taken 
refuge in their last stronghold. Fort Williams — an enclosed work in 



14 The Last Year of the War in North Carolina, 

the centre of the line, sometimes called the Star Fort — which being 
refused, Hoke opened a heavy artillery fire on it, and in a short while 
the white flag was run up, and the garrison of Plymouth, with an 
immense quantity of supplies of all kinds, was surrendered. 

General Hoke received a very gratifying telegram from President 
Davis announcing his promotion to the rank of Major-General, to 
date from the capture of Plymouth. 

After the capture of Plymouth, on the 5th of May, the Albemarle 
went down into the Sound and won immortality by fighting for four 
hours with eight ships, some of which carried 100-pound Parrott 
guns, until the muzzle of one of her two guns was shot away, and 
her smoke-stack was so riddled that she couldn't make steam. Then, 
after inflicting great damage on the enemy, she got back safely to 
Plymouth again. 

The possession of Plymouth and the Roanoke river was thus trans- 
ferred to the Confederates, and was held by them as long as Captain 
Cook was retained in command of the Albemarle. Soon after his 
removal (which was one of the mistakes of the Secretary of the Navy) 
that vessel, the only protection to the town against the Sound fleet, 
was blown up at night by the daring Lieutenant Cushing, of the 
United States Navy, who put a torpedo under her, and the town was 
soon thereafter occupied by the enemy. 

There were no military operations of any importance in North 
Carolina after the fall of Plymouth until the winter of 1864, when the 
first expedition against Fort Fisher was organized. There were no 
troops in the State, except the garrisons at the forts on the Cape 
Fear and some detached companies guarding prisoners in the west 
and doing picket duty in the eastern counties. 

FORT FISHER. 

From the beginning of the war Wilmington had been the chief, 
and for the last two years the only Confederate port to and from 
which blockade runners could ply with any degree of safety. North 
Carolina took advantage of this fact to buy and run a fast steamer, 
whereby she was enabled to keep her soldiers better clothed and 
better supplied with shoes, blankets and medicines than the soldiers 
of any of the other States of the Confederacy. It had long been a 
matter of surprise that a vigorous attempt to capture the place had 
not been made by the United States Government. It was regarded 
as only a question of time when such an attempt would be made, 



Including Plymouth, Fort Fisher and Bentonsville. 15 

but a very general opinion prevailed that when made it would be by 
landing a force on the coast above or opposite to Wilmington, and 
not by attacking the forts below at New Inlet and the mouth of the 
river. 

At last, in the beginning of the winter of 1864, the rumor of an 
intended expedition against these forts became current, and attention 
began to be directed to them. Sherman had reached the sea near 
Savannah on the 13th December, Hardee had evacuated Savannah 
on the 20th, and on the 21st Sherman had taken possession of that 
city. Before he started on his track of desolation through the Caro- 
linas, the first expedition against Fort Fisher started, by direction of 
General Grant, who. notwithstanding the enormous disparity of num- 
bers between his army and General Lee's, was unwilling to risk 
detaching any of his force for the expedition until active operations 
in front of Petersburg had been suspended. Then, in co-operation 
with the navy, it was undertaken. 

Fort Fisher, which, by reason of having sustained the most terrific 
bombardment that has ever occurred in the history of the world, has 
become an historic spot, was situate (it no longer exists) at Federal 
Point, where the Cape Fear river, breaking through the narrow pe- 
ninsula between it and the sea, formed New Inlet. As there is no 
longer any fort there, so also there is no longer any inlet, the Govern- 
ment having closed it by what the late General Hurhphreys, Chief of 
Engineers, United States Army, told me was the greatest piece of 
engineering on this continent. The stone wall which now shuts out 
the sea is a mile and one-eighth in length. 

It is unnecessary to give more than a general description of the 
fort, whose confused mass of sand hills has long been a dreary soli- 
tude, over which the sea breeze sweeps, and in front of whose ruins 
the surf breaks in long lines of foam. It had a land-front of six 
hundred and eighty-two yards, and a sea-face of one thousand 
eight hundred and ninety-eight yards,* both of which had heavy 
parapets intersected by great traverses. A palisade ran about fifty 
feet in front of the land face, and a line of sub-terra torpedoes lay 
about two hundred yards in front of it, connected with the fort by 
wires. It was built, and was commanded by Colonel William Lamb, 
of Norfolk, Virginia, under the general supervision of General Whi- 
ting, commanding the district. 

* Colonel Lamb's report. 



] 6 The Last Year of the War in North Carolina, 

Tuesday, December 20th, the day that Hardee evacuated Sa- 
vannah, Admiral Porter's fleet of fifty ships, with three monitors, 
began to gather off New Inlet. On the night of the 23d, Butler's 
powder-ship, an old worn-out propeller, called the Louisiana, with 
two hundred and fifteen tons of powder in her, was towed in to within 
about one thousand two hundred yards of the fort and exploded, 
with the expectation of destroying this enormous earthwork (a mile 
in extent), and " paralyzing " the garrison, so that troops could after- 
wards march in and take possession. It was claimed, on behalf of 
Butler, that the powder-ship was prematurely exploded in his absence, 
and that if he had been there with his troops he might have assaulted 
next morning successfully. 

The next morning (24th) the fleet stood in, the Ironsides leading, 
and commenced the most terrific bombardment — except that which 
occurred three weeks later — that has ever occurred. 

" Such a torrent of missiles was falling into and bursting over it 
(the fort)," says Admiral Porter, "that it was impossible for any 
human being to stand it." The shower of shell, he says, numbered 
one hundred and fifteen per minute. All that day and all the next 
day the atmosphere, for miles around and as far as Wilmington, 
quivered under the continuous thunder of 1 5-inch Columbiads, 20-inch 
Rodmans and 300-pound Parrotts, and throughout the infernal uproar, 
the voice of the guns of Fort Fisher, led by the great Armstrong 
rifle, recently sent from England as a present, was heard steadily 
answering the fleet. 

The enemy landed two brigades during the afternoon of the 25th, 
and to cover their landing, the Brooklyn and seventeen gunboats 
swept the woods in rear of the beach. 

During the bombardment, Hoke's division, which had again been 
sent from Virginia, arrived at "Sugar Loaf" a point three miles 
above the fort on the river, but they could take no part in daylight, 
as five hundred guns from the fleet were bearing on the land where 
they would have had to operate. General Bragg had been assigned 
to the command of the district, and has been criticized for not 
assaulting and capturing the enemy's land force at night, when the 
fleet could not open its fire except with as much risk to friend as foe. 
He did not attack, and the troops were re-embarked on the 26th. On 
the 27th, the fleet with the transports withdrew, and Admiral Porter, 
laughingly, no doubt, transported the hero of the powder-ship back to 
the haven where he would be, and to the immortality of glory which 



Including Plymouth, Fort Fisher and Bentonsville. 17 

he had achieved as the producer of a greater noise than had ever 
been made by any one man since the world began. 

The garrison of Fort Fisher at the time of this first attack, accord- 
ing to the official report of Colonel Lamb, was, on the 24th, 738 men 
and 140 "Junior Reserves," or 1,371 all told. The casualties in the 
fort were not great, being three killed and sixty-one wounded, and 
the damage to the works was not serious. The numbers are thus 
given solely for the purpose of correcting some terrible mistakes 
which have been made and published to the world in regard to them. 
In President Davis's book, " The Rise and F"all of the Confederate 
Government," the garrison is placed at 6,500 men. In a letter to 
Colonel Lamb, since the publication of that book, Mr. Davis says 
this is probably a typographical error, and that 650 was probably 
written. It is a very important mistake, because in speaking of the 
second fight, when Fort Fisher was captured, he says the garrison was 
about double what it was at the first attack. This would make the 
garrison at the last attack 13,000, who surrendered to 8,000, whereas 
the actu;il number of officers and men surrendered after the gar- 
rison had received all the reinforcements, was only 2,083. 

There was great relief and much rejoicing over the failure of the 
expedition, and the belief prevailed that Fort Fisher could success- 
fully resist any assault that could be made upon it. But this faith 
was of short duration. Unfortunately, a few days after the retire- 
ment of the fleet. General Bragg withdrew Hoke's division, and all 
troops except the regular garrison of the fort and some detached 
companies at Sugar Loaf, three miles above, for the purpose, it has 
been said, of attacking the town of Newbern, but if such was the 
purpose it was never carried into execution, as the troops did not go 
beyond Wilmington, twenty-two miles distant from the fort. 

During the night of the 12th of January, 1865, the fleet, now in- 
creased in number to fifty-eight ships, besides the transports and 
four monitors, reappeared, and early on the morning of the 13th 
some of them drew in close to shore, at a point about four miles 
above New Inlet, furiously shelled the woods of the peninsula for 
some time, and then the disembarkation of the troops began, at a 
point just above the head of Masonboro Sound. 

The disembarkation was completed, and the troops were all landed 
by three o'clock in the afternoon. There was no opposition to their 
landing, and General Bragg claimed afterwards that it would have 
been useless to oppose them. " No human power," he said, "could 



18 The Last Year of the War in North Carolina, 

have prevented the enemy from landing, covered as he was by a fleet 
of ships carrying six hundred heavy guns." He may have been 
right, but his failure to attack them, at least at night after their land- 
ing, was certainly a great surprise and disappointment to the garrison 
of the fort, and to all on the outside of it. 

The number of the landing force was about eighty-five hundred. 
They were commanded by Major-General Alfred H. Terry, and con- 
sisted of two divisions (Ames's and Paine's) and one brigade (Ab- 
bott's) of infantry and two field batteries. After landing, the column 
was moved down the beach around the head of the Sound, and con- 
tinuing the march about a mile, Paine's division of negroes and 
Abbott's brigade were turned to the right, and crossed the peninsula 
from the sea to the river. Ames's division passed on about a mile 
nearer the fort, and formed in a similar line across the narrower part 
of the peninsula. This was done after nightfall. Of course, both 
lines set to work diligently to intrench ; and when they had comfort- 
ably fixed themselves, General Bragg made a reconnoisance only to 
discover that he could do nothing except " watch and wait," while 
the enemy leisurely completed all his arrangements for the assault, 
after thus protecting his rear. 

All of the 13th and 14th, the fleet kept up an awful fire on the fort, 
and especially on the land-face, which was subjected to both a direct 
front and rear and an enfilading fire of the most terrible intensity. 

Every one of the twenty-two heavy guns on this face, except one 
lo-inch Columbiad, was dismounted ; every Napoleon except one 
was rendered useless ; every wire leading to the mines was torn up, 
and the palisade was knocked into " such a wreck as actually to offer 
a protection to some of the assailants." Fifty thousand shells were 
expended by the fleet in this work. General Whiting, who had been 
quietly superseded in the command at Wilmington by Bragg, and 
who was a very accomplished and brave officer, went down with his 
stafif to the fort, and, saluting the commanding officer with the words, 
"Lamb, my boy, I have come to share your fate; you and your 
garrison are to be sacrified," went to work assisting and advising, 
but refused to take command. 

Every preparation possible was made to meet the impending 
assault, but the sharpshooters of Ames's division, under cover of the 
fleet fire, had worked their way to within one hundred and fifty yards 
of the parapet, where they kept up an annoying fire from the holes 
they had dug in the loose sand. 



Including Plymouth, Fort Fisher and Bentonsville. 19 

So matters stood when night came on the 14th. During the day 
application was made by Colonel Lamb lor reinforcements, but it was 
late on the 15th before any came, and only three hundred and fifty 
of these, from Graham's South Carolina brigade, landed and entered 
the works just before the assault was made. 

Ames's assaulting column consisted of three brigades, commanded 
by Curtis, Bell and Pennypacker, supported subsequently by Abbott's 
brigade. 

Sunday, the 15th, about 3 P. M., the fleet, which lay in a double 
crescent, changed its fire from the land-front to the left, and along the 
sea-face ; and then the gigantic Curtis, towering six feet four inches in 
height, witii flowing black beard, sprang up, and leading his brigade 
in gallant style, followed by the other two brigades, made a rush for 
the western salient, which was an uninclosed battery. (This brave 
man, whom I know, was hit seven times, one glancing shot destroying 
one of his eyes.) About the same time two thousand sailors and 
marines, under Captain K. R. Breese, assaulted the northeast salient, 
where they were met by General Whiting and Colonel Lamb with 
about five hundred men, and after a struggle of half an hour or more 
were driven off with a loss of about tiiree hundred. 

The assault of the two brigades on the left was met by about two 
hundred and fifty men, the supports ordered there by Colonel Lamb 
from the reinforcements not having obeyed the order,* and these two 
hundred and fifty repulsed the assailants twice, but were soon sur- 
rounded and overwhelmed by the greatly superior force, who cap- 
tured several of the traverses before the rest of the available force, 
about eight hundred men, could confront them. 

The brave Whiting, who had helped to meet the naval brigade, 
now led the counter-assault on the enemy and was shot down. Then 
commenced a hand-to-hand struggle of the most desperate character 
on the parapet and over a traverse; and the guns on the " Mound " 
and at Battery Buchanan being now turned on the enemy, they were 
checked for a time. At this moment Colonel Lamb, who was in the 
act of ordering a charge, was also shot down. 

This was about 5 o'clock P. M., and the fleet, having effectually 
performed its awful work, rocked gently on the blue waters in silence, 
while every eye on board was anxiously directed to the fort. The 



* Colonel Lamb's Account, Southern Historical Society Papers, August 
and September, 1882. 



20 The Last Year of the War in North Carolina, 

fight continued inside the works, and Abbott's brigade was ordered 
up to assist the assaulting column. Splendid courage was exhibited 
by the devoted garrison, who fought on against overwhelming num- 
bers for nearly five hours longer. 

Strange to say, it was currently reported after the fall of the fort 
that no resistance had been made, and that the conduct of the garri- 
son had been " disgraceful." * How false this was is proved by the 
testimony of friend and foe alike. One fact of itself was enough to 
make the garrison hold out to the bitter end, and that was, that 
General Lee had written to Colonel Lamb, and he had told his men 
that it was necessary to hold the fort and keep open the gateway to 
supply the Army of Northern Virginia with food and clothing from 
abroad. But the enemy bore willing testimony to the conduct of the 
garrison. 

One officer after saying: "There came a time when, for hours, 
the battle made no progress either way," added that "the assault 
at the fort had slackened to a standstill, and the exhausted men 
were losing heart." The Inspector-General of the Federal forces 
says: " For the first few minutes, out of every five who gained the 
parapet three went down, dead or wounded." And again he says : 
" The two brigades led by Curtis and Pennypacker, then advanced 
eastward along the land front, carrying each traverse successively 
against the most desperate opposition, until after two hours' fighting, 
with heavy loss, their heroic leaders both severely wounded, and 
one-half the regimental officers disabled, the crossed bayonets and 
clubbed rifle stopped them at the eighth traverse." "Through the 
whole evening," he says, " until long after darkness closed in they 
offered the most stubborn defense. Never did soldiers display more 
desperate bravery and brilliant valor. With their leaders. Whiting 
and Lamb, both disabled with wounds, sadly reduced in numbers, 
well foreseeing the fresh force to be brought against them, under 
these circumstances they gradually abandoned the fort, and retreated 
about a mile to the extreme point of the peninsula." Colonel Wain- 
wright, of Delaware, who commanded the Ninety-seventh Pennsyl- 
vania Volunteers in the assault, says it was a " fight where assault 
and defense were never more desperately made since God made 
men to differ and fight it out in battle," General Terry and Admiral ■ 
Porter also testify to the bravery of the garrison. 

* Governor Graham's letter, " Last Ninety Days of the War," page 115. 



Including Plymouth, Fort Fisher and Bentonsville. 21 

It was lo o'clock at night before the final surrender was made, 
when two thousand and eighty-three officers and men (including 
those in the lower parts of tiie work who were not engaged) were 
captured, and not nearly six times that number, as has been published 
to the world. 

Colonel Lamb's misfortune was in not having enough men at the 
western salient to resist tlie infantry assault, but his explanation of 
that is that the reinforcement of three hundred and fifty sent by 
Bragg, whom he ordered there, did not go, and that he and General 
Whiting, knowing that the northeast salient where the naval brigade 
assaulted was the key to the works, had used most of the available 
force in resisting that attack, and while thus engaged, and before they 
succeeded in driving it back, the enemy had overwhelmed the small 
force at the sally port and west salient, and had thus effected a lodg- 
ment inside the works. 

The truth is, that it was impossible for the force in Fort Fisher to 
prevent the enemy from affecting a lodgment at some point. There 
were not enough men there to watch and defend every part of that 
immense work, which fronted about a half mile on the land-face and 
a mile on the sea face. 

General Hoke, who as a fighting officer had no superior in the 
army, was compelled to remain idle while all this was going on. 

General Bragg, his superior, having permitted the landing of the 
enemy and the establishment of a double line of intrenchments, be- 
hind which stood eight thousand men with artillery, and the approaches 
to the trenches being commanded by five hundred guns of the fleet, 
it would have been worse than useless to attack with less than half 
their number, which was about the strength of Hoke's command. 

The fall of Fort Fisher necessitated the abandonment of the works 
at the mouth of the river, and accordingly on the night of the i6th 
of January those works were blown up, and the garrisons who had 
worked so hard to make them formidable sadly turned their faces to- 
ward Wilmington and marched up to other points, which they had 
occupied until Schofield's army, which had landed farther down the 
coast, began its march to Wilmington. A sharp skirmish occurred 
between them and Schofield at Town Creek, but of course they were 
compelled to retire. 

Hoke remained in his intrenched camp at Sugar Loaf for nearly 
a month, until Schofield's column started, and then, flanked by the 
fleet which had entered the river, and pressed by Terry in the rear, 



22 The Last Year of the War in North Carolina, 

he retreated up the peninsula through Wilmington towards Golds- 
boro. The Federals entered Wilmington February 22, 1S65. 

THE SITUATION. 

Sherman was now on his way north, laying the country desolate, 
and bringing untold misery upon the old men, women, and children 
who were so unfortunate as to live near the route taken by him. 

While he approached the North Carolina line from the south, and 
Schofield and Terry were moving up from the southeast, General J. 
D. Cox also, with three divisions of about twenty thousand men, ad- 
vanced from the east, from Newbern towards Goldsboro, the point 
toward which the three columns were converging. 

By this time General Joseph E. Johnston, who, since his removal 
from command at Atlanta, was living at Lincolntown, in western 
North Carolina, was, at General Lee's request, put in command of 
all the forces in North Carolina. General Bragg was in command 
of Hoke's division and the other troops, which had assembled at 
Goldsboro, and which numbered about seven thousand. 

AFFAIR AT KINSTON. 

On the 6th of March, learning that Cox was approaching Kinston, 
Bragg applied to General Johnston for the few troops of the army of 
Tennessee, then under General D. H. Hill, that had arrived at 
Smithfield from Charlotte by railroad, and they, together with the 
remnant of Clayton's division — in all less than two thousand — were 
sent to him and he moved down towards Kinston, and on the 8th of 
March, near that place, attacked Cox's three divisions. Bragg's 
force was less than ten thousand ; Cox's was nearly or quite twice 
that number. Such was the vigor of the attack that the enemy were 
defeated and driven for three miles, losing fifteen hundred prisoners 
and three field pieces, besides a large number killed and wounded. 
Our loss was small. Cox intrenched at night at the point to which 
he had been driven, and the next morning, after skirmishing for a 
time, Bragg attempted to turn the enemy's intrenchments, but failed 
and was compelled to withdraw, with small loss and much disorder. 
He fell back to Goldsboro again, slowly followed by Cox, and was 
ordered with all his command to Smithfield, where General Johnston 
was concentrating his forces for the final strnggle. 



Including Plymouth, Fort Fisher and Bentonsville. 2 3 



KILPATRICK S GALLANTRV. 

On the loth of March, Sherman's army, which had started from 
Columbia towards Charlotte, but had changed direction and was 
moving on Fayetteville, had arrived within seven miles of the latter 
place. 

Between the Catawba and the Cape Fear there had been six en- 
counters between the Confederate cavalry under General Hampton 
and the Federal cavalry under Kilpatrick, in each of which the Con- 
federates had the advantage. That which happened about daybreak 
of the lolh, when Hampton surprised Kilpatrick's camp was, per- 
haps, the most important in results, as it was the most peculiar in 
some of its incidents. Hampton completely routed the enemy, drove 
them into a swamp, captured their artillery and wagons, and would 
have brought the latter away if some of his poorly mounted men in 
their eagerness to secure horses and mules as well as plunder had 
not carried off so many, that neither guns nor wagons could be saved. 
Hampton ordered their wheels to be cut to pieces, however, which 
made them useless to the enemy. He captured five hundred 
prisoners, some of whom he immediately released, as he was not 
making war on women, much less upon such as were guests of the 
commanding officer, and still less upon such as, not expecting com- 
pany, had made no suitable arrangement of their toilet, but, following 
the lead of their host, had merely "wrapped the drapery of their 
couch" about them and sought the shelter of the adjacent swamp. 
He also released one hundred and seventy-three of our men, who 
were prisoners in the hands of the enemy. 

On the nth, at Fayetteville, a squadron of the enemy's cavalry 

dashed into town, but were routed by a handful of our cavalry led by 

General Hampton, who, it is said, killed two of them with his own 

hand. 

Sherman's vandalism. 

At this point I am tempted to portray some of the atrocities per- 
petrated by General Sherman's army upon the defenceless non-com- 
batant population of that part of North Carolina through which it 
was passing ; but although they form a very essential part of any 
truthful historical narrative of that period, and ought to be pilloried 
to eternal infamy, the recital of them, even in the most condensed 
form, would require much more than the time allotted to me on this 
occasion. Soon after the war they were graphically depicted by a 



24 The Last Year of the War in North Carolina, 

gifted daughter of North Carolina in letters to the New York Watch- 
man, and these were afterwards published in book form as a contri- 
bution to the history of the war.* 

A more striking and apposite use of historical material was never 
made then when she contrasted the incidents of Cornwallis's march, 
eighty-four years before, through the same region, with those attend- 
ing General Sherman's. With Cornwallis's own order book before 
her (which she describes as still in excellent preservation), and also 
the story of Sherman's march — as given by a member of his staff, 
and as described by ministers of the Gospel, ladies and prominent 
citizens — she draws the contrast. 

" In the month of January, 1781," she says, "exactly eighty-four 
years before General Sherman's artillery trains woke the echoes 
through the heart of the Carolinas, it pleased God to direct the course 
of another invading army along much the same track ; an army that 
had come three thousand miles to put down what was in truth a 
' rebellion ' ; an army staunch in enthusiastic loyalty to the govern- 
ment for whose rights it was contending ; an army also in pursuit of 
retreating ' rebels,' and panting to put the finishing blow to a hateful 
secession, and whose commander endeavored to arrive at his ends by 
strategical operations very much resembling those which in these 
latter days were crowned with success. Here the parallel ends. The 
country traversed then and now by invading armies was, eighty-four 
years ago, poor and wild and thinly settled. Instead of a single, 
grand, deliberate and triumphant march through a highly cultivated 
and undefended country, there had been many of the undulations of 
war in the fortunes of that army — now pursuing, now retreating — and 
finally, in the last hot chase of the flying (and yet triumphant) rebels 
from the southern to the northern border of North Carolina, that 
invading army, to add celerity to its movements, voluntarily and 
deliberately destroyed all its baggage and stores, the noble and accom- 
plished commander-in-chief himself setting the example. The in- 
habitants of the country, thinly scattered and unincumbered with 
wealth, exhibited the most determined hostility to the invaders ; so 
that if ever an invading army had good reason and excuse for ravag- 
ing and pillaging as it passed along, that army may surely be allowed 

it. 

" What was the policy of its commander under such circumstances 
towards the people of Carolina ? " 



» " The Last Ninety Days of the War," by Mrs. C. P. Spencer. 



Including Plymouth^ Fort Fisher and Bentonsville. 25 

Then she gives a number of extracts from Cornwallis's own book, 
such as the following : 

"Lord Cornwallis is highly displeased that several small houses 
have been set on fire during the march — a disgrace to the army — and 
he will punish with the utmost severity any person or persons who 
shall be tbund guilty of so disgraceful an outrage." 

* * * " Any officer who looks on with indifference, and does 
not do his utmost to prevent shameful marauding, will be considered 
m a more criminal light than the persons who commit these scanda- 
lous crimes, which must bring disgrace and ruin on His Majesty's 
service. All foraging parties will give receipts for the supplies taken 
by them," etc. 

This, too, be it remembered, in a country where, as Stedman, the 
historian of Cornwallis's army, asserts : " So inveterate was the rancor 
of the inhabitants that the expresses for the commander-in-chief were 
frequently murdered, and the people, instead of remaining quietly at 
home to receive pay for the produce of their plantations, made it a 
practice to waylay the British foraging parties, fire their rifles from 
concealed places, and then fly to the woods." 

Tarleton himself narrates the fact that a sergeant and private of 
his command were put to death under martial law for offenses com- 
mitted against the inhabitants, and he adds that the execution of the 
sentence " exhibited to the army and manifested to the country the 
discipline and justice of the British General." 

The writer, from whom I have been quoting, also calls attention to 
the fact that "Light Horse Harry" Lee in his Memoirs says he 
captured two of Tarleton' s staff " who had been detained in settling 
for the subsistence of the detachment.' ' 

To turn from such a record as this, made one hundred years ago, 
to the utterances of General Sherman, official and unofficial, and to 
the acts of his officers and men, as described (and evidently wit- 
nessed) by members of his own staff, is enough to make an Ameri- 
can citizen of to-day hang his head in shame. Before reaching 
North Carolina, and while yet in Georgia, this was his record, ac- 
cording to his own official report : 

" We consumed the corn and fodder in the region of country thirty 
miles on either side of a line from Atlanta to Savannah ; also the 
sweet potatoes, hogs, sheep and poultry, and carried off more than 
ten thousand horses and mules. I estimate the damage done to the 
State of Georgia at one hundred million dollars, at least twenty mil- 



26 The Last Year of the War in North Carolina, 

lion dollars of which inured to our advantage, and the remainder was 
simple "waste and destruction !' ' 

Sherman's army expected to find a strong Union sentiment in 
North Carolina, and were prepared to mitigate somewhat their pre- 
vious atrocities when inside its borders ; but soon discovering that 
they were laboring under a mistake, they acted as usual, robbing 
everybody, even the negroes, who naturally regarded them as their 
liberators and friends. They wantonly destroyed everything which 
they did not need, or could not carry away, and then burned many 
private residences, after stripping them naked, and after insulting and 
outraging their helpless inmates, and after hanging up in many in- 
stances, and murdering in others, old men who denied possessing 
money or other valuable property. And yet Major Nichols, Sher- 
man's aid, says in his " Story of the Great March" that although 
Fayetteville had been an "offensively rebellious" town, private 
property there was protected to a degree which was remarkable, and 
that he was surprised that the soldiers did not make the citizens suf- 
fer in one way or another ! 

Just what the Major considered as amounting to suffering it would 
be interesting to know. 

I shall dwell no longer on these acts of vandalism, except to say 
that they were continued as late as the month of May, after John- 
ston's surrender, and after Grant's proclamation of protection to 
private property, one of the most notorious instances of it being at 
the house of the most distinguished and venerable citizen of the State, 
ex-Chief Justice Ruffin, and under the very eye of a Major-General 
of the Federal army. 

Of course the arsenal and other Confederate works at Fayetteville 
were destroyed, as was legitimate, although it was entirely unneces- 
sary to waste so much valuable property, as it could never have been 
used against the United States. The enemy entered the town on the 
nth March. Hampton covering, as usual, the retreat of our forces, 
burned the bridge over the Cape Fear, and Hardee fell back on the 
Raleigh road towards Averasboro' , which seemed to be the route on 
which Sherman intended to advance, although, as will be seen, Golds- 
boro was really his objective point all the time. 

BENTONSVILLE. 

Sherman was personally in command of this column, which con- 
sisted of the Fourteenth and Twentieth corps, with Kilpatrick's 



Including Plymouth, Fort Fisher and Bentonsville. 27 

cavalry, in al! about thirty-five thousand men. He started on the 
road to Raleigh, and when he had reached a point about four miles 
below Averasboro he found the gallant Hardee waiting to receive 
him witli about si.x thousand men, most of whom. General Hardee 
said in his report, had never seen field service, and iiad been organ- 
ized on the march. 

The enemy repeatedly assaulted this little force, but were repulsed 
every time by the little band of heroes, who behaved with the steadi- 
ness of veterans. Indeed, their conduct was superb (for they were 
required to perform the trying duty of changing position under fire), 
and they were greatly cheered by the result, although their loss was 
about five hundred men. 

This was on the i6th of March, 1865. That night, hearing that 
the enemy had crossed Black river below him, and apprehending a 
flank movement, Hardee withdrew to Elevation. 

It was discovered on the 17th that this force of the enemy was not 
marching toward Raleigh, and General Hardee remained at Elevation 
to rest his men. At this time, that splendid North Carolina soldier, 
General Hoke, had his division of 4,775 men at Smithfield. General 
Stewart also had there 3,950 men of the army of Tennessee. About 
daybreak of the i8th. General Johnston, hearing that the enemy was 
marching toward Goldsboro by two roads — the right wing on the 
direct road from Fayetteville and the left wing on the Averasboro 
road, and that they were some distance apart, ordered Hardee from 
Elevation and the troops at Smithfield to concentrate at Bentonsville, 
so as to attack the head of the left column of the enemy. A mistake 
in the map as to distances delayed Hardee, but he got there the next 
morning (19th March) and General Johnston immediately moved to 
his position, which was on the eastern edge of an old plantation, lying 
north of the road and surrounded on three sides by a dense blackjack 
thicket. There was but one road through the thicket, which made it 
very difficult to deploy the troops. Hoke occupied the left of the 
line of battle, with two batteries, which were our only artillery, on 
his right and Stewart's command to the right of the artillery. By 
this time the enemy appeared and deployed, and immediately made 
a vigorous attack upon Hoke, which that veteran soldier met with 
his accustomed firmness and repulsed after a half hour of hard fighting. 
Hardee had now got into position on the right, and the enemy then 
assaulted Stewart, but was again repulsed. Then General Johnston 
ordered Hardee to charge with the right wing, followed successively 



28 The Last Year of the War in North Carolina, 

by the othei brigades towards the left, each command facing obhquely 
to the left as it went in. They swept along in splendid style, over the 
last half of the distance at a double quick, without firing a gun, until 
they drove the enemy from their intrenchments back to their second 
line. Then they opened fire and charged again, General Hardee on 
the right dashing over the breastworks on horseback in front of his 
men. They drove the enemy into a dense pine thicket, where they 
made another stand, but they were still driven, until the impossibility 
of managing a movement in such a dense wood caused the Confede- 
rates to halt and gather up their dead and wounded, and after night- 
fall they resumed their first position, which they held. The troops 
were in fine spirits, as well they might be after such success against 
such odds. 

It was in this fierce fight, which a veteran officer said he had never 
seen surpassed for its close and deadly musketry fire, that a portion 
of the garrisons at the mouth of the Cape Fear river, who had joined 
Hoke, so distinguished themselves and were so terribly cut to pieces. 
It was insinuated after the fall of Fort Fisher that if it had been de- 
fended by veteran infantry instead of the artillery garrisons it would 
not have been captured. Yet in this charge at Bentonsville the "Red 
Infantry," as they were called, behaved with such conspicuous gal- 
lantry as to command universal admiration. Lieutenant-Colonel 
John D. Taylor led them and lost an arm. Every officer m the com- 
mand, except two, and one hundred and fifty-two out of two-hundred 
and sixty-seven men in the First North Carolina battalion were either 
killed or wounded. 

This very unexpected and lively performance caused Sherman to 
bring over his right wing from the Fayetteville road to the Averas- 
boro road, and the next morning they were coming up rapidly in 
rear of Hoke's division. Hoke changed front to the left to meet it, 
Hampton and Wheeler prolonging his line to the left. About mid- 
day Sherman's whole force, about seventy thousand, was concen- 
trated, and from that time until sunset made attack after attack upon 
Hoke's division, the last one, which was the severest, being made on 
Kirkland's brigade. Every one of these attacks failed, and the 
enemy were so effectually driven back that our infirmary corps 
brought in a number of their wounded who had been left on the field " 
and carried them to our field hospitals. The enemy far overlapped 
our left, and a cavalry skirmish line was deployed to show a front 
equal to the enemy's. This was on the 20th. 



Including Plymouth, Fort Fisher and Bentonsville. 29 

On the 2ist, the enemy early began a very spirited skirmish, and 
during the whole afternoon directed a heavy fire against our centre 
and left. A little after 4 o'clock the Seventeenth corps broke through 
the thin cavalry skirmish line on the left, and began pressing towards 
Bentonsville in rear of our centre, and on the only route of retreat. 
And now a brilliant performance occurred. Hampton, with a small 
cavalry force, and Cumming's Georgia brigade, under Colonel Hen- 
derson, hurried to the left to head off the enemy, and met them just 
as they struck the road. At the same time General Hardee clashed 
up with a few (about seventy-five) of the Eighth Texas cavalry. 
Hardee ordered Henderson to charge the enemy in front, the Te.xans 
to charge their left flank, and Hampton charged the right flank, while 
Wheeler, a long distance off, charged their rear in flank. Despite 
their great numbers, the enemy gave way before these simultaneous 
and splendid attacks, and were defeated in a few moments and driven 
back. General Hardee's only son, a lad of sixteen, was in the Texas 
cavalry, and was killed in this charge. Meantime the fight continued 
along the rest of the line. There being no object now in holding his 
position, which the swollen stream in the rear made hazardous, Gen- 
eral Johnston during the night crossed Mill Creek at Bentonsville, 
and the next morning, after the rear guard had defeated every effort 
of the enemy to force the bridge, the army moved on and bivouacked 
near Smithfield, on the south side of the Neuse, that evening. 

In the first day's fight we had fourteen thousand one hundred 
men, and the enemy about thirty five thousand, and on the second 
our numbers were about the same ( having been slightly reinforced), 
while the enemy had seventy thousand. We captured four pieces of 
artillery the first day, and in the three days captured nine hundred 
and three prisoners. We lost in all two hundred and twenty-three 
killed, one thousand four hundred and sixty -seven wounded, and six 
hundred and fifty-three missing, but many of these returned. The 
enemy's killed and wounded were estimated to largely exceed four 
thousand. 

FINAL OPERATIONS. 

Schofield got to Goldsboro' on the 21st of March, Cox having pre- 
viously arrived, and on the 23d Sherman's columns united with them 
at that place, and the whole vast army of over one hundred thousand 
men rested there for two weeks. 

These two weeks witnessed the last convulsive agonies of our 



30 27(6 Last Year of the War in North Carolina, 

struggle. It was two days after this junction of Sherman's forces at 
Goldsboro, that Gordon, under General Lee's orders, made the 
desperate and brilliant sortie upon Fort Steadman on the right of 
Grant's lines at Petersburg — which was followed by Grant's increased 
pressure on Lee's right, and that by Sheridan's victory at Fair Oaks, 
which forced the evacuation of Petersburg, the uncovering of the 
Confederate capitol, and the retreat of the remnant of that splendid 
army with the vain hope of uniting with Johnston's forces in North 
Carolina. 

On the 9th of April, the very day of General Lee's surrender, the 
forces under General Johnston entered Raleigh on their retreat before 
Sherman, and the latter occupied the city on the 13th. The same 
day General Stoneman, who, on the 25th of March, had entered 
North Carolina from Tennessee with nine thousand cavalry, after 
making a detour into Virginia, re-entered the State, and passing 
through Winston and Mocksville, captured Salisbury. Three days 
before, one of his detachments, which had been sent to cut the rail- 
road between Danville and Greensboro, only missed, by a few mo- 
ments, capturing the Confederate President and Cabinet, who were 
then hurrying to Greensboro. 

Stoneman found only about five hundred Confederates at Salisbury, 
and these, though they fought him gallantly, were soon brushed away. 

The negotiations between Sherman and Johnston began on the 
14th, but even then the kindly Lincoln, who had authorized Sherman 
to grant "any terms" to Johnston, had himself fallen by the hands 
of an assassin, and the last cruel blow to our hopes had been given. 
The surrender occurred on the 26th of April, 1865, and military ope- 
rations in North Carolina ceased. 

CONCLUSION. 

Thus omitting many details, I have endeavored to present a "bird's 
eye view " of the military operations in that State during the last 
year of the war. In comparison with the great battles fought by the 
Army of Northern Virginia under its immortal leader, the events 
recited by me were of small proportions to be sure, but each of the 
three principal ones, Plymouth, Fort Fisher and Bentonsville, in 
which a part of the Army of Northern Virginia participated, splen- 
didly illustrated the qualities of that army and sustained its fame. 

And now, comrades of the Virginia Division, permit me, in con- 



Including Plymouth, Fort Fisher and Bentonsville. 31 

eluding what I fear has been a wearisome address, to express to you 
my hearty thanks for your invitation to perform this duty. It is not 
the first time that Virijinia gentlemen have conferred unexpected 
honors of this kind upon me, and the full measure of my appreci- 
ation thereof can best be understood by him who attaches the highest 
value to that name. 

He is but a narrow-souled or a most ignorant American who does 
not hold the name Virginia in reverence. Whether he comes from 
the oldest settlement of New England, or the newest "clearing" in 
the youngest territory, if he knows aught of the history of his country, 
or feels the faintest spark of pride in contemplating the achievements 
which have made it great, the name of this grand old Commonwealth 
must always be associated in his thoughts with what is noblest and 
most venerable in our annals. If he follow the now broad and splendid 
track of American progress back for two centuries to where its first 
traces were blazed in the pathless forest, he will find at every step the 
evidences of her genius and her patriotism. Whether in the earliest 
struggles against arbitrary power, belbre the beginning of the eigh- 
teenth century, or at the genesis of material development on this 
continent, when Spotswood, " the Tubal Cain of Virginia," estab- 
lished the first iron furnaces in America, and colonized German vine- 
dressers on the Rapidan-^or during the long colonial dawn — or in 
the century that has elapsed since one of her sons clothed himself 
with immortality as the founder of this republic — at all times she has 
been the nursery and home of greatness, both in deeds and men. 

Who shall pronounce a fitting eulogy upon her, who not stand 
abashed before so great a theme? 

The fame of more than one of her sons has filled the earth, and 
will live in the hearts of men when every material monument to their 
memory has perished. Will it diminish that fame to know that they, 
both of the earlier and later days, were called Rebels ? When that 
structure, whose corner-stone was laid yesterday with the benisons 
of millions resting upon it, shall have crumbled into dust, and his 
chiefest opponent shall have passed into oblivion, the Christian vir- 
tues, the calm and fearless spirit, the unselfish patriotism, and the 
military genius of him to whom it is reared, will still be cherished as 
a priceless legacy by mankind. 



/ 



WM. ELLIS JONES, 

Book and Job Printer, 

No. 5 S. Twelfth Street, 

RICHMOND, VA. 



ESTIMATES PROMPTLY FURNISHED. ALL WORK GUARANTEED. 
RICHMOND, VA., BOOK STORE. 

We have the largest assortment of books, old and new, in the Southern 
States. Catalogues of any of the following mailed free : 
No. 1. Yirginia Public School Boolis. 
No. 2. Private School aud College Books. 
No. 3. 1,100 Books for Farmers. 
No. 4. Confederate and other Books I'elating in whole or in part to the 

late Civil War. 
No. 5. 3,300 Law Books, new and second-hand. 

Books of value bought or taken in exchange. 
McCarthy, Carlton. Detailed Miiuitias of Soldier Life in the Army of Nor- 
thern Virginia, iS5i-'5. With Illustrations by W. L. Shepherd. i2mo. 
Cloth, |i. 50. Half Calf, I4.00. Full Tree Calf, I5.00. Richmond. 18S4. 
" The description of the march, the bivouac, the battle, the customs of 
the service, the trials, pleasures, oddities and routine of a military career, as 
it looks to the men in the ranks, are fresh and vivid, and the narrative pas- 
sages are full of spirit. Notwithstanding that so much has been written 
about the war, private McCarthy seems to have given us something new."— 
New York Tribune. 

Memorial Volume Army of Northern Virginia. Proceedings and Addresses. 
i870-'79. 8vo. Cloth, $2; Half Morocco, |2.2.s; Half Calf, $2.50; Half 
Russia, $3 50; Full Russia e.xtra plates, J5. Richmond. 1880. 
Those who have heard these addresses will be glad to have them col- 
lected in a neat volume; and comrades of our grand old army who have 
been denied the privileges of mingling with us in our re-unions will rejoice 
to have in permanent form the eulogies pronounced by our gifted President 
and his accomplished subalterns on the life and character of our grand old 
chieftain; the thrilling story of the CHUipaign from Rapidan to Petersburg, 
as graphically told by Colonel Venable, of Lee's staft; the strategic influence 
of Richmond on the campaigns of the Army of Northern Virginia, as ably 
discussed by Colonel Charles Marshall, Lee's Military Secretary ; the able 
and eloquent discussion of Gettysburg, by Major John W. Daniel, of General 
Early's staff; the story of the Siege of Petersburg, as told in the scholarly, 
eloquent and valuable address of Captain VV. Gordon McCabe; the vivid 
pictures of " the South before and at the battle of the Wilderness," by Private 
Lee Robinson; the able, exhaustive and valuable historic paper on "Jack- 
son's Valley Campaign," by Colonel William Allan, Chief of Ordnance of 
the Second corps; and the splendid sketch of Chancellorsville, by General 
Fitzhugh Lee. It is hoped also that the other matter will be found of in- 
terest and value. 

J. W. RANDOLPK & ENGLISH. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 704 950 8 



peRiTUlipe* 



